Updated with pics.

Need some help as this is well outside my revolver wheelhouse. Local shop offered me one of two trade in Mauser P08 from 1937 with the S42 mark. Does have the import marks on the barrel. Almost all numbers matching with the black plastic grips and newer single mag. Only thing is there a extremely slight bulge in the barrel from a squib. Should I be at all concerned with the barrel that is numbered to the gun? This has been test fired by the shop with a few magazines through it and shoots straight & accurate. I put $ down on it to hold it. Not a collectors piece by any means from the looks of it but I think I am doing ok at $689.00 out the door. Any comments or things to look at would be most appreciated. I dont have this in my possession. Here are the two pics I took.







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For a few hundred more you can get a shooter mismatch Luger that looks far better and has a true barrel. Might take some looking but they are out there.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

I wouldn’t buy a gun with a bulged barrel, no matter the price. If being offered one, I’d keep it as curio / display, but I wouldn’t shoot it. And they produced Luger by the boatloads during the war.

That aren't the correct grips for a 1937 P.08 and it has a CAI import marks on the barrel but does look worth $600 to me. A 4 inch barrel is cheap enough if you can change it. With little effort this post war Mauser, the frame is clearly identifiable by the Mauser hump, should make a good shooter. I would not go mch higher because of the Mec Gar magazine, while it should work great, the value isn't there.

It appears you have one of the Luger VOPO reworks that can out of E Germany several years ago after re-unification. These initially sold very cheaply, in the $300 range, but have gone up since the import Luger market has virtually dried up. it should be ok as a shooter even with the slight bulge but has virtually zero collectors value. Frankly, I'd look for a better example.
Jim

What Italian sport
and sheepdawg said , I bought a mis matched 1918 P08 with a WW2 holster for $ 800.00 a gun probably used in WW1 and WW2 with no import mark you can do better .

Ditto. Others have given you all the information you need.

I'll go with the other guys said.
Mine is a miss-matched SN but was priced reasonably and my birth year.
https://s8.postimg.cc/k667ee8qt/Luger_002.jpg

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Only difference Fool/Mule-ears

It does look like a rework-reblue with cheap grips but to me it's all
about the price. Decent original Lugers aren't cheap these days. I
wouldn't worry about shooting it with the bulged barrel. It would be a
good shooter-plinker for the right price. $689 is too close to the price
of better guns. The shop probably didn't give much for it like it is.
If you want it they will probably come down a good bit for a cash
offer.

Not a bad price........I'd be concerned about the buldged barrel though. Try offering $600.00!

Other than a lack of accuracy which seems to not be a factor in this instance what's the problem with a slight bulge in the barrel? Is there a factual safety concern? We already know it's not a collectible.

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BCCI Life Member #2068

It's like driving a mostly correct 65 Shelby Mustang GT350 with a bashed in driver's door.

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LIVE FROM THE DAWGHOUSE

Probably a bit high IMO with that ring in the bore.
W/o that issue, the repro mag, the (Russian/EGerman?) grips and the mismatched part numbers would make it a decent deal at the price.
$600 OTD would be my standing offer and let it be at that.

Sometimes you pay a bit more than you want to, but only becasue the local selection is scant to nothing and the item you want only comes around once in a while.
The 'OTD price' has to be considered here too. If the OP were to go shopping on-line and find a better deal,,better pistol, he would then have to add in shipping and transfer fees and possibly return shipping and FFL fees if the pistol doesn't satisfy.
That can add up.
I don't know what the local sales tax situation is. Some areas the transfering FFL charges local s/tax on the price you payed for the gun.
It all really adds up fast on that good deal.

The thing about bulged bbls is they bring the gun price down. That's good. But the owner's generally never quite get over the fact that it's there. Even if the gun shoots well.

Luger bbls are available if you look around. Not cheap like they once were, but you can find them.

If you were to change the bbl,,it's another mismatched part of course, unless you can find one of the un#'d bbls that used to be around.

Changing a bbl on a Luger is not simple. They are torqued in very tightly, the frame (bbl extension) is extremely fragile and thin.
It takes an actionl wrench made specially for the Luger with several inserts to fill the rail slots and bottom lug area to reinforce it before trying to turn the extension off the bbl.

Many failures have happened doing this operation which usually ends up shearing the lug off the bottom of the extension or distorting the ring altogether.

A bad bbl like the bulged one can be lathed off at the shoulder and more easily taken off from there. The old bbl being scrap at that point.
Some smiths would want to save the old bbl for a sleeve job.
Plus putting the new bbl back on still requires that somewhat special action wrench or you'l bugger that all up again.

It's not a job for the average parts changer type 'smith.,,and it'll cost you a bit too.

Better to look for a Luger w/a good bbl to start with IF that issue is going to be important.
Cheaper to buy it with a good bbl than go find a good bbl later and have it installed.

those are not cheap grips. They appear to be the grips that were used by Mauser in 1941/42 to substitute harder to get and more labour intensive wood ones. They started appearing from mid production 1941 to the end of Mauser production in 1942.

A famous American dealer/collector named the Lugers so equiped "black widows" for marketing reasons. And the name stuck. There still are collectors willing to pay premium for a "genuine" "black widow".

Of course in a 1937 S/42 Mauser, those grips are not original. But they could have been period replacements (assuming they are genuine and not modern reproductions) wood grips were not unbreakable, and a war is not easily breakable parts friendly.

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Expect the unexpected

I cannot see the VOPO sunburst that is usually under the take down lever, nor the Russian X but they might, or might not be present. However, I had quite a few Lugers and the only one I held on to is a VOPO Luger that works like a charm with all different magazines and is as accurate as my P210.

Those grips on the OPs gun are neither the East German, nor the standard Russian replacement grips. The black ones on my 1942 are Russian made for East Germany, and the brown ones are Vopo grips.

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	P08 Vopo.jpg (42.0 KB, 31 views)

What makes you think those grips are Russian made?

The black Russian grips I know look lke this:



And out of curiosity. What's the block letter on that byf 42 of yours.

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Expect the unexpected

Are you sure it is an S/42 and not just 42. To me that looks like a byf 42 Black Widow P-08. Salt blue, no straw color parts, black plastic grips and mag with black plastic bottom. If that mag is stamped "fxo" on the back of the spine that mag is worth $200-300 bucks. At $689 I might be in on an all matching numbered one, even with a ring in the barrel.

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Bill Bates

A 1937 Mauser is an S/42.

And there is no such thing as a "black widow".

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Expect the unexpected

I think I'd pass on this one too. My only reservation is that I don't see alot of P.08 examples in the shops these days.

What do you mean "no such thing" .... Ha!

I mean the whole thing was a marketing "fabrication" of Ralph Shattuck.

Of course there are Mausers with black grips.

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Expect the unexpected

I had talked to an East German VOPO Luger collector, who had been a P.08 armourer for the VOPO and Betriebskampfgruppen that used the P.08 and he had told me that they got the black grips with the coarse checkering from Russia and the replacement barrels used on EG P.08s were made in Czechoslovakia in the same factory that had made P.38 barrels in WWII.

I also got an EG made replacement take-down lever from him, it has a different shape.

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By the mag bottom it can be clearly identified as a MecGar modern replacement. They were $20 at CDNN last time I bought some. Original Haenel mags do not have that pattern on the mag bottom.

I agree with others. I'd keep looking. And for what it's worth, I will never buy anything imported by CAI; they have the unique talent of destroying the looks of an otherwise nice gun by chiseling their obnoxious import mark in the most esthetically visible location they can find

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John

I appreciate all the comments and thoughts on it. Yes, I bought it. Here are updated pics. As noted, yes, it is not numbers matching.












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For my money you spent more than I would, but I really can't fault you for it.
I've wanted a gen-u-ine German Luger since I was a kid, and I wouldn't be happy with a safe queen I was afraid to devalue y shooting.
So I bought this all numbers matching (except the magazine) nickel refinished specimen recently. I felt like I got it for a steal of a deal at $400.

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I got one of those imported VOPO’s, back in the early ‘90’s. It is in fantastic shape and shoots well. Yes, it was @ $300.00, and I replaced the grips with nice checkered wood ones.

Interestingly enough, it was made from a “K” Date Mauser so kinda cool. Everyone knows what one looks like, but here’s a picture of the original VOPO grips.

Jim

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...as required these days by the BATFE. Hate the game, not the player.

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Release the Kraken

To the OP: I like it. IF the mismatched barrel is part of its rebuild history, then so be it. For sure, it's one more Luger than I own.

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Release the Kraken